Mahmut Ağca, a senior figure working as an “intelligence officer” in the terrorist group PKK, was eliminated in Syria by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), security sources said on Monday. Ağca was among the masterminds of several terror attacks in Türkiye, including one in Istanbul that killed 47 people in 2016.
Ağca, codenamed “Azad,” was eliminated in Syria’s Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, sources said. The terrorist was implicated in a string of attacks in Türkiye since 2015 and was on the “priority target” list of Turkish intelligence. Sources said Ağca was detected holding a meeting with fellow terrorists at a residence in Ain al-Arab and MIT launched an operation there to eliminate him.
The terrorist joined the PKK in 2006 and was in the group’s so-called civilian defense units until 2015. That year, he joined the PKK’s “military intelligence” unit to carry out terror attacks in Türkiye. Those attacks include one on a shuttle bus carrying riot police in the southeastern Turkish province of Şanlıurfa in August 2015, which killed two police officers and another in the province of Diyarbakır in August 2016, which killed six civilians. The deadliest terror attacks he orchestrated were outside a football stadium and inside a park in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district. Two bombings carried out in succession by PKK on Dec. 10, 2016, claimed 47 lives, including 40 police officers who were deployed for security of a Süper Lig match. The attacks also injured 242 people. Ağca was also responsible for an attack in Syria’s Azaz that targeted members of the Syrian National Army (SNA) in August 2024.
